The present invention is directed to a household refrigerator including a freezer compartment having an access door. Contained in the freezer compartment is an automatic motor driven ice dispenser comprising an ice mold, means for ejecting ice pieces from the mold, a receptacle for receiving the ice pieces from the mold, and a rotatable dispensing means positioned within the receptacle for moving the ice pieces through the receptacle and discharging the ice pieces from an opening in the receptacle.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,572,053-Jacobus et al and U.S. Pat. No. 3,640,088-Jacobus et al disclose household refrigerators including exterior ice services including an ice passage in a freezer door and combination receptacle and dispensing means for delivering batches of ice pieces from the receptacle to the passage. The dispensing means is motor operated and designed to deliver batches of ice pieces periodically to the passage during operation of the motor.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,212,405-Rose et al and 2,697,918-Comstock disclose exterior surface ice servicers in which ice pieces are dispatched directly from an ice maker through a cabinet wall or the cabinet door, the amount of ice available at any one time being limited by the storage capacity of the ice makers.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,602,007-Drieci discloses through-the-door ice service comprising a receptacle mounted on the interior surface of a small ice access door provided in the main or primary freezer door so that the ice stored in the receptacle is available exteriorly by opening the pivoted ice access door without opening the main freezer door.
The present invention is directed to an exterior ice service combining the advantages of an ice storage receptacle for storing a relatively large amount of ice pieces with a manually-operable ice disdispensing means for dispensing batches of ice without opening the primary freezer door.